The Internet has emerged as a powerful advertising tool. It is common place to see advertisements on many web sites. For example, advertisements may be displayed on search web sites and may be targeted to individuals based upon search terms provided by the individuals. Other web sites, such as news and sports web sites, may provide space for advertisements. The owners of these web sites may sell advertising space to advertisers to supplement the costs associated with operating the web sites as well as to turn a profit.
As the internet has grown, the number of web sites available for hosting advertisements has increased. The diversity between web sites has also increased. That is, the number of web sites focusing on selective groups of individuals has increased. For example, some web sites cater to gaming enthusiasts. Some may cater to woman in a certain age group. As a result of the increase, it has become increasingly difficult for advertisers to optimize their advertising budgets. For example, some web sites may be better suited to a particular advertiser's products than others. Advertisers unfamiliar with the vast number of web sites available for hosting advertisements may choose to host their respective advertisements on a less than optimal host web site and this may result in a lower rate of return for the advertiser.
The problem above has led to the creation of the ad broker. The ad broker is a person that matches advertiser advertisements to publisher web sites. The publisher web sites may include regions for displaying advertisements. The ad brokers may receive information from advertisers about the customers they are targeting. Publishers may provide the ad broker with information about individuals that frequent the publisher's web sites. Using this information, the ad broker may match the advertisement to the publisher web site. However, the steps involved in performing this operation on a large scale can be unwieldy. Computer applications may aid the ad broker to some extent. However, keeping track of the information provided from numerous advertisers and publishers may still prove challenging. In some cases, the ad broker may be dealing with multiple orders at the same time and switching between the orders may prove time consuming and prone to error.